WHITE HOUSE PURITANS WOULD SNUFF OUT REEFER SANITY

TAKOMA PARK, Md. -- The Bard of Baltimore, H.L. Mencken, once defined
Puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be
happy." He would have found quite a few Puritans in his home state in
recent days, trying to keep demon weed away from the seriously ill.

Shrugging off their pressures, Maryland's Republican Gov. Robert L.
Ehrlich signed a bill Thursday that, although it does not quite
legalize the medicinal use of marijuana, does the next best thing. It
reduces the maximum penalty for possession from a year in state prison
and a $1,000 fine to a $100 fine in cases of "medical necessity," such
as to relieve suffering from cancer treatment and other serious illnesses.

That's one small step for the governor and one giant leap toward
reefer sanity, a rational and compassionate national drug policy in
which states could make their own decisions about drugs without
ideology-driven interference from Washington.

Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Nevada and
Maine also have legalized medical marijuana. All but Hawaii did it by
referendum. Another 21 states have approved largely symbolic laws or
resolutions recognizing marijuana's medicinal value.

Watching his brother-in-law die of cancer two years ago helped shape
Ehrlich's view, he has said. As a congressman, he co-sponsored a bill
that would have freed states to make their own laws on the medicinal
marijuana issue.

"I think most people can discern a clear difference between legalizing
substances that wreck lives," Ehrlich was quoted as saying during a
Capitol Hill visit in April, "as opposed to a life situation where
someone is doing something because of severe pain."

But, not everyone does. Drug czar John P. Walters, the White House
drug policy coordinator, strongly opposed the measure and denounced
the notion of marijuana as "a proven, efficacious medicine" as making
no more sense than "an argument for medicinal crack."

Funny he should say that. Marijuana is listed along with heroin and
LSD as a "Schedule I" drug, the category for drugs with "no acceptable
medical benefits" under the federal Controlled Substances Act. Cocaine
is listed in Schedule II for drugs that have "a currently accepted
medical use in treatment in the United States."

Categorizing marijuana as more dangerous than cocaine is one of many
examples of how far our federal drug policy is removed from the real
world.

Perhaps now Maryland can avoid bizarre cases like that of Kitty
Tucker, a lawyer I wrote about four years ago in the Washington suburb
of Takoma Park. When she and her husband had a dispute over their
teenage daughter's dating, the youngster got even by telling police
about the marijuana plants that Tucker was growing in their basement
for relief from her severe migraines and chronic muscle pain disorder.

The charges eventually were dropped, but only after Tucker's husband
lost his federal job and the family was put through a legal and
emotional wringer.

If states were left to make their own marijuana laws, we also might
avoid cases like that of Ed Rosenthal, who was convicted under federal
law of growing and distributing cannabis, even though he was licensed
by the city of Oakland to do so under California's medical marijuana
statute.

The judge in his case prevented several attempts by Rosenthal's
attorney to inform the jury that Rosenthal's actions were legal under
state law. After his conviction, seven jurors took the extraordinary
step of publicly repudiating their own verdict and apologizing to Rosenthal.

A House bill would allow defendants from states with legalized medical
marijuana to use "medical necessity" as a defense against federal drug
charges. It has pulled together co-sponsors as diverse as liberal
Barney Frank, D-Mass., and libertarian Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.

I wish them luck. The die-hard prohibitionists on the other side
recently introduced a bill to authorize the drug czar to use taxpayer
money in political campaigns, as long as it is "to oppose an attempt
to legalize the use" of any currently illegal drug.

Let's hope that bill dies a quick death. Those who want to keep
medicine away from the sick are entitled to promote their opinion. I
shouldn't have to subsidize their campaign.